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On the nuclear industry and cover-ups

Wed, 04/19/2017 - 8:17amCherokeeS1

By:

Stephen Comley

I recently received a letter from Fred L. Bower III, chief of the Division of Reactor Projects Branch 3, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, King of Prussia, Penn. This letter came because of conversations I had with Richard Barkley, who works at the NRC as a nuclear and environmental engineer. Mr. Barkley is a person I have respect for at the NRC because I believe he has endeavored to get responses from the NRC’s Higher Ups concerning We the People’s nuclear safety concerns. I hope Mr. Barkley will not become a scapegoat for the content of this misinformation contained in Mr. Bower’s letter to me. Former NRC executive director Victor Stello used fall guys during his cover-ups at the NRC concerning bogus nuclear parts when a finger started pointing in Victor’s direction for alleged wrongdoing.
These and other persons – including former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, former U.S attorney Rudolph Giuliani, attorney Stephen Ryan, former Sen. John Glenn’s top legal advisor as well as a host of others who were involved in cover-ups of counterfeit substandard nuclear components. This is proven on WTP’s tape-recordings the Department of Justice has wanted to seize for more than 30 years and will make Watergate look like a Jack & Jill story.

I became outraged after reading the letter to me of March 3 from Mr. Fred L. Bower. I am specifically referring to the paragraph in which Mr. Bower stated the following: “We noted that you are now willing to provide the names of informants on alleged counterfeit and substandard parts used in the nuclear industry, but will not do so until the NRC has a public hearing on Seabrook Evacuation issues in your hometown of Rowley, Mass. Since the nature of this issue stems back to your interactions with senior agency officials many years ago, you may want to contact the NRC Office of Inspector General at their toll-free hotline number (1-800-233-3497) to discuss this matter further.” As I expressed to Mr. Barkley during another recent conversation, I consider what Mr. Bower stated to be a very serious matter given his letter of March 3 has been in the NRC’s ADAMS public file since he wrote it. I do not know where Mr. Bower ever got the impression I am willing to give up WTP’s names connected to the evidence I have of counterfeit substandard parts built in most if not all U.S. nuclear plants, including Seabrook Station. I received this troubling information from very brave and courageous whistleblowers at the NRC as well as informants within the nuclear, civilian and weapons Industries. I never told Mr. Barkley, Mr. Bower or anyone else at the NRC I am willing to give up the identities of WTP’s informants. I never do give up names unless I have their permission due to possible reprisals from our informant’s employers. Mr. Bower’s letter and statements without a doubt already are causing a chilling effect on any new whistleblowers who were thinking of coming to WTP with their nuclear safety concerns or cover-ups within the NRC.

Over the last 30 years, WTP’s adversaries have proven they will go to great lengths to discredit WTP’s work and myself. This includes politicians, NRC officials and the national press. The recent incident with Mr. Bower is just another attempt by the NRC to keep whistleblowers from coming to WTP.
I have requested an official apology regarding Mr. Bower’s letter from the NRC’s new chairman, Kristine Svinicki. I also want a retraction by the NRC, of the statement made by Mr. Bower in the third paragraph of his letter of March 3. WTP insists on being notified when Mr. Bower’s letter has been removed from any of the NRC public document rooms. WTP also demands to know if, and when, the retraction and the NRC’s official apology was placed in the ADAMS or any other of NRC’s public document rooms. I am not surprised by this new attempt by the NRC to defame WTP’s work. I certainly remember a previous attack, when President George W. Bush hired Attorney General Thornburgh, who sent me a subpoena that landed me in federal court for more than six years. The charge was, “Stephen B. Comley Sr. and Roger Fortuna, (former) deputy director of the NRC’s Office of Investigation, are conspiring to topple the NRC; and if Comley does not turn over the tape-recordings he has made of high officials in Washington, he could be jeopardizing the safety of the American people and security of U.S. nuclear plants across the country.” A federal judge threatened me with jail, found me in contempt of court and fined me $1,000 a day, which amounted to more than $1 million for not confirming whether I had tape-recordings. For years, the NRC, Washington establishment and seven presidents, including Donald Trump (who the nuclear industry endorsed), have proven they do not want WTP’s tape-recordings to become public. The national media are not interested in exposing the truth either, including the so-called fair balanced and unafraid Fox News. They will not fully investigate due to the fact they are told will not get anymore leaks from the White House or Congress if they write about the word “nuclear.”
Mr. Bower’s letter to me of March 3 confirms this charge of mine. If Mr. Bower had ever taken the time to read my letter of Oct. 22, 2015, to David Williams, first NRC inspector general, or my July 4, 2014, letter with enclosures I sent to Glenn T. Dentel and many others, Mr. Bower would have known the last place I would turn over WTP’s tapes would be to the U.S Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation or the New NRC IG Hubert Bell, who refuses to act on any of WTP’s safety concerns at the Seabrook Nuclear Plant.

If anyone wants to see these letters, just go to my website, www.stephencomleysr.com, and click on the icon View Work on the first page. On the second page, you will see two pictures of what first started my 30-year journey of investigating the NRC and nuclear Industry. Click down begin to see five one-minute videos – two of Mr. Trump and myself, one with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and me, one with Dr. Ben Carson and me during the time all of us were running for president. The last one will warm your heart, which is an interview of me by the media class at Triton Regional High School lying within the 10-mile radius of Seabrook Station. Mr. Bower’s letter also contained the statement, “I understand that you have met with (or provided information to) Ms. Maura Healey (Massachusetts attorney general) regarding your concerns with the adequacy of emergency preparedness at Seabrook.” Ms. Healey has not contacted the office in this matter.

Part of my reply to Mr. Barkley about Mr. Bower’s letter to me states, “Please review my letter of Jan. 9, 2017, with enclosures I wrote to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in preparation of our meeting of Jan. 10, 2017, during Ms. Healey’s Town Hall in Newburyport.” Under agreed circumstances, I will let Ms. Healey listen to WTP’s tape-recordings, especially since I found out she has the boldness to take on the NRA and Exxon. Just because Ms. Healey has deep dimples when she smiles, don’t let that fool you. After hearing WTP’s tapes, I believe Ms. Healey will accept my challenge and wish for her Office of Public Integrity to investigate the NRC, and will not be intimidated by the powerful nuclear industries and those in the Washington who continue to allow the NRC to play Russian roulette with the American people’s safety.
The NRC has failed to develop effective evacuation plans to protect vulnerable residents in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. This includes our elderly and children, who cannot be moved quickly in nursing homes or in private or public schools. The NRC wrote me and recommended these citizens should be left behind and administered potassium iodide to drink by caregivers who would volunteer to stay in the wake of a nuclear disaster. Also, first responders in those states are expendable, who have gag orders to have no opinion whether Seabrook Station’s evacuation plan in the event of a disaster can be effectively implemented, which the NRC licensed in the middle of Hampton Beach. WTP’s tapes will prove cover-ups of the counterfeit substandard nuclear parts scandal by NRC and nuclear industries officials. I have approached hundreds of the media with the opportunity to listen to WTP’s tapes but they don’t seem too interested in exposing the corruption within the NRC or nuclear industries.

The Journalist’s Creed in part states, “Suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is a violation of the public trust and indefensible.” Due to these circumstances, I have contacted some high schools and college media classes, which I also will let listen to WTP’s tapes. From talking with some of these students, I know they will not be fearful or intimidated by the powerful nuclear industry or the NRC. These students who want to pursue a career in journalism will be revealing their findings soon because of listening to WTP’s tape-recordings. The national media also does not choose to write about how the Seabrook Nuclear Plant got licensed. Admiral Watkins, who then was head of the U. S. Department of Energy, convinced self-proclaimed “pussycat” John Sununu, then White House chief of staff, into using a secret document to intimidate former NRC chairman Ivan Selin into licensing Seabrook Station. Over the last 30 years, my foes have tried to intimidate my family, and my life has been threatening more than once. These kinds of incidents have created a lot of passion in me to get the truth out about nuclear power and the NRC – and no one is going to stop me. Democracy will only work when people take the time to get involved. Stephen B. Comley Sr. Founder of We the People, a national whistleblower protection non-profit organization(This guest column is the opinion of the writer and not necessarily that of the Cherokee Scout or Community Newspapers Inc.)